For the Earth: JJ Hendrix and sustainability at Eugene's Saturday Market

Dylan Darling @DylanJDarling

Monday

Aug 19, 2019 at 12:01 AM

All the waste tossed out at Eugene Saturday Market ends up passing across one table.

Two Saturday Market employees sift through it, separating any recyclable or compostable items from garbage. The waste sorting is just one way the market — a Eugene institution that runs every Saturday from early April until mid-November — strives for sustainability.

Saturday Market also offers reusable silverware and encourages patrons to bring their own reusable items, such as bags and cups, said Jennifer "JJ" Hendrix, assistant manager of the market. The goal is to reduce the waste produced each Saturday at the market.

Dave Diercks, lead composter for Saturday Market, is one of the two workers who goes through hundreds of pounds of waste. The table is in a corner of the market that visitors can pass by and see. Some people come with questions. "Most of the time people just walk up and say thanks or, 'Can I get you a lemonade?'"

>Listen - For the Earth podcast: JJ Hendrix

Hendrix discussed the Saturday Market and sustainability as a guest on For the Earth, a podcast produced by The Register-Guard. Excerpts from the episode follow.

RG: Do you think it's good to have people see the waste out in the open like that?

Hendrix: I think it's wonderful. A lot of people are curious. You don't see people doing this every day. They get a lot of questions. They're very happy to answer. They come by and they share tips and ask questions. So there's great communication going on with the community by this sort table.

RG: The Saturday Market is now utilizing metal, reusable silverware. Tell me about this program. How long have you been doing it? And how does it work?

Hendrix: This is a wonderful program, it got started about 15 years ago. We own thousands of metal forks and spoons. When you go up to a food booth, there will will be a tub, you take your fork, you have your meal, and by every single trash can there is a bucket — it says “dirty forks,” you just throw it in there. At the end of the day, we collect them all, we bring them to a local restaurant and they wash them and then we employ someone to sort them back into these little tubs, which in turn go back out to the food vendors. So this way we have a closed system with the silverware.

RG: The Saturday Market has a sustainability committee. Sustainability — that's one of those words that people hear often but might not know what that means. How do you, JJ, define sustainability?

Hendrix: Well, for me, sustainability, you would be looking at where something's coming from and what it took to make that, what it is you are using yourself, what's left over after your use and the process for getting it there. And finding a way to reduce that, reuse that or eliminate things that aren't needed at all.

RG: What is the Saturday Market doing to achieve sustainability?

Hendrix: Beyond the trash sorting and the silverware, we do sell reusable shopping bags at the info booth. If you bring a reusable mug to the market, most of our food vendors will give you a discount for bringing that in — keeping one more thing out of the landfill.

RG: The Saturday Market is the oldest outdoor market in the country. You hear from other markets and organizers around the country. What do they ask you? And what do you tell them?

Hendrix: The most popular thing they ask about right now is our reusable silverware program. So we lay it all out to them talk about the feasibility, about the cost, about what to expect. There is a certain training of the public that goes along with it. So we share all that we can. We share with them how we sort our trash. We would love for sustainability to be one of those things that isn't a closely guarded trade secret. It's something you share with everyone often.

>Related - For the Earth: Brennen Matherly and his campaign against plastic straws and single-use items

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